COLTS

BOYS U12 & U14 MINIS

The boys’ tournaments were held on Sunday June 10th.
In the morning 8 teams contested for the U12 title, Beeston, Cannock, Coventry & NW, Lichfield, Peterborough, Sheffield, West Bridgford and Wolverhampton. Beeston had 4 players drop out through illness within 24 hours of the tournament but were able to draft in Michael Lavelle and Ella Holloway as replacements. The team and coach were very grateful to them for agreeing to play at such short notice.
Peterbro and Cov&NW were unbeaten in their group matches each winning 2 and drawing 1 leaving them top in their respective groups. Lichfield and Beeston qualified for the semis as the runners-up. Beeston were also unbeaten having drawn 0-0 with Cannock and Cov&NW and beaten W.Bridgford 4-0 with goals from Matt Shuttleworth, James Powell(2) and Josh Dixon.
With outstanding performances from Matt, James, Ella and Captain Jack Simkins, solid goalkeeping from Rhys Stevenson and remaining squad members Michael, Josh Dixon and Josh Robinson rotating the Beeston team just got better and better. They were dominant against Peterbro in the semi final, Matt Shuttleworth calmly scored a penalty to put the Bees in front before James and then Matt added to their tally. In the other semi Cov&NW drew 1-1 with Lichfield but went through 4-3 on penalty strokes. In the final Josh Dixon hit the target twice and Matt again scored from the penalty spot to give Beeston a 3-0 victory over Cov&NW. The team played very well together and thoroughly deserved their winners’ medals.
Beeston U12s: Rhys Stevenson, Jack Simkins, James Powell, Matt Shuttleworth, Josh Dixon, Josh Robinson, Michael Lavelle and Ella Holloway.

In the afternoon Beeston fielded 2 teams in the U14 event, BeestonMK and BeestonAP which was essentially an U13 team. As in the morning several players were unavailable, 6 of them county standard or better but it is a reflection of our strength in depth that we were still able to field 2 competitive teams. 10 teams competed for the U14 title, Beeston (2), Cannock, Cov&NW, Leek, Peterbro, Lichfield, Sheffield, West Bridgford and Wolverhamptin.
BeestonMK easily won their group with maximum points beating Cov&NW 2-0, Lichfield !-0, W.Bridgford 1-0 and Cannock 2-0. Lichfield were runners-up having lost only to Beeston.
The other group was a much tighter affair with Leek and Wolverhampton on 7pts before a final group match between Peterbro and BeestonAP who were on 4pts and 6 pts respectively. BeestonAP had beaten Wolverh’pton 3-1, Sheffield 2-1 and lost to Leek 0-3. BeestonAP sportingly delayed the start of this final match when half the Peterbro team went missing, usually the match is forfeited 3-0 but this would have prevented Wolverhampton from qualifying through no fault of theirs. The delay clearly affected Beeston more than Peterbro and they lost 0-1. This left 3 teams on 7pts and BeestonAP 4th on 6pts. Leek and Wolverhampton went into semi finals on superior goal difference. BeestonAP drew with Cannock 0-0 to finish =7th.
In their semi final BeestonMK went ahead with superb goals from Ross Whiting and Nick Charlish before conceding their only goal of the day to Wolerh’pton. In the other semi Leek beat Lichfield 2-1. The final was one sided as Liam Adams scored a hat trick for Beeston and Ross was again on target giving Beeston a 4-0 victory against Leek. Beeston therefore retained the U14 title and completed the double for the first time since 1999.

BeestonMK U14s: Nick Halliwell, Rob Trem, Ian Welch, Tom Vickerstaff, Liam Adams, Nick Charlish, Ross Whiting and Charlie Scott.
BeestonAP U14s: Jack Chambers, Ali Postlethwaite, Charlie Willars, Brad Prince, Alex Clarke-Dowson, George Osborne, Rory Macildowie, Josh Greaves and Tom Kirkwood.


GIRLS U12 & U14 MINIS
The girls’ round robin tournaments were the following week and this year we managed to hold an U12 tournament. Once again Beeston were without several key players but are strength in depth again came to the fore and we were able to field a team in each age group.
In the morning 6 teams took part, Beeston, Lichfield (2), Newark (2) and Sheffield. The Lichfield teams were very strong and our predominantly U11 team lost 0-1 to Lichfield and 0-3 to the eventual winners Lichfield As. The matches against the Newark teams were close with  Beeston beating the Otters 1-0 but losing to the Beavers 0-1. In the last game Beeston drew with Sheffield 1-1 placing them 4th overall. Beeston’s goals were scored by Maddie Scott and Katie Hopkisson.

Beeston U12s: Cassie Jordan, Maddie Scott, Katie Hopkisson, Freya Crocker, Tori Bate, Kate Sotheran, Katie Elcock, Siobhan Gethings and Ruth Chamberlain.

There were 7 teams in the U14 event in the afternoon, Beeston, Cannock, Leek, Lichfield, Newark, Sheffield and SBU.  Leek looked very impressive early in the tournament beating Lichfield 6-0 and Cannock 5-0 in their opening matches. In their matches the Beeston girls played well and had plenty of possession but lacked finishing power, beating Cannock 2-1 and drawing with SBU 0-0 before losing to Leek 2-1. Meanwhile SBU, having drawn against Beeston, won all their remaining matches and the tournament! Despite their early promise Leek finished runners-up. Beeston went on to beat Lichfield 2-1, Sheffield 2-0 and to draw with Newark 1-1 to finish a creditable 3rd.

Beeston U14s: Lucy Clark, Bex Brown, Jenny Burke, Alice Shuttleworth, Lorna Rowley, Emily Slatcher and Gabby MacSweeney.